Kill Xipe
by IzzyandDesRoxSox
Summary: "They thought I was dead, but as you can see, I'm alive. And I am going to kill Xipe." They took everything away from her, and her baby is the last straw. Joey Summerskill wants revenge, and she's gonna get it alright...AU. Lots of deaths! Bitter J/X
1. Prologue: The Massacre

**Revenge is a dish best served cold.**

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><p><em>Prologue<br>September 1998_

_She laid on the floor panting heavily, shaking, weak from being brutally beaten, and drenched in blood. Her simple white gown stained and dark red pools of her own blood surrounding her. Or perhaps that belonged to the countless others who she wasn't that far behind from ending up as._

_She blinked her pale blue eyes, her blurred vision trying to adjust and stay awake as a pale, broad hand carressed her cheek affectionately. He quickly acquired a clean hankerchief and started to wipe off the large bleeding wound on her forehead._

_"Sh...sh.." he hushed in a smooth, accented voice. The voice that had once been a soothing lullaby to her drifted into a nightmare for her. He made a 'Tsk Tsk' noise as if lecturing her for something she had done._

_"Tell me Joanne, do you find me sadistic?" he questioned. She strained herself to widen her eyes in shock. Was this a sick joke? The answer was obvious from the looks of him alone. He accepted her stunned silence for an answer as he continued to clean the blood gently off her face._

_"You're aware that there's nothing sadistic in my actions. It was just...unsettled business between us. Try to understand." he softly remarked, making the others nearby snigger quietly and viciously. Those familiar faces behind him stood proud and tall for their monstrous actions, and he was no different than the rest of them._

_"Unfortunately at this moment-" he continued as she continued heaving heavy pants and fighting to live. Her eyes widened, horrified at the sound of the familiar click and hiss of a weapon he was normally unlikely to use._

_"This is me, at my most masochistic." he finished, drawing the weapon right towards her. It's so close to her face that if she had the strength to crane her neck up her nose would be touching the cold metal end of it._

_"Xipe." she strains, gritting her teeth and eyes welling._

_"It's your bab-"_

_**BAM!**_


	2. Chapter One: The Lovers

_An Important Note: Whenever you see these underlined italics, these are Joey's POV thoughts narrating. If there are no lines underneath but just italics then it's a flashback. However some of Joey's narration does come in in flashbacks._

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><p><span>Chapter One<span>

The Lovers

**Four Years Later...**

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><p>A yellow pick-up truck decorated in a 1970s groovy style slowly pulled up to the side of a small house. It was an average appearing house, and it wasn't difficult to tell children lived here. On he front yard of the perfectly trimmed late summer lawn was a sandbox, two tricycles left on the ground, and several other scattered toys on the lawn.<p>

_Yeah, you would've suspected this was the average American house home to a perfect family. Well this is far from the case. _

Her heart faltered at the sight of the toys scattered on the lawn. This wasn't predicted about the children and judging from the rather large amount of toys, perhaps there was more than one.

_Don't be too surprised about these two of all people having children. Gather around kiddies, and you'll understand soon enough._

_This house was home to Shana Harley and Jimmy Hammerstein, but upon leaving the whole Hell house murder business they went under the alias of Jack and Rose Moore, a couple from California that were trying to escape the fast life and all it's trouble._

_Hmph. How ironic, normally they desired trouble, along with each other. They couldn't get enough of it, and were the frisky, reckless ones of the group. I guess that's the price to pay for forcing them into the job, it was their own revenge to get back at all those who had dragged them into such a job. He accidentally got caught up in a brawl with one of the men at a fight, killed the man, and was forced into the job by replacing the fallen warrior. She was tricked into the job by none other than Snake Charmer. And just who that is you'll learn later._

After remaining silent for a few moments, the woman finally decided to leave the truck. Slowly closing the door with a gentle 'slam', her ears perked just in case if she was too loud. Any second of carelessness would mean being exposed and the entire plan was ruined. And this was far frmo the missions of the old days, there were no second chances or time to improvise. It was now or never.

For a moment she pondered over their worth. The fact they had a child or many more now made it show they had long since moved on with their lives. Maybe they had changed back to the better people they had once been and in some nutshell became a bunch of sappy born again Christians. The woman raised her eyebrows and made a small smirk in amusement at the idea, but highly doubted it.

The fact they had a life together now, with a family, it sparked a heat of envy in her heart. She knew very well that one of the main morals of life was that it could be unfair, but the events done to her nearly half a decade ago were just plain cruel. Maybe life's cruelty was something the three of them shared in common. How unfortunate things usually turned out for them back in the day, teaching them to value the littlest things, including friendship. Out of all of the entire league, the entire Crazy 4, Jimmy and Shana were the only true friends to her. The only ones that knew how to keep secrets and pay back favors.

Hence why their betrayal hurt her the second most.

It wasn't like this time they were trapped or forced into it. They had been on their knees and forced to crawl to power, and by the time of the Massacre, they had it all. Hell they probably could've ordered an alternative attack or at least a different date, let alone call off the entire thing. But they went along, and chose to do nothing otherwise but what they were already told. They were followers, it was in their natural and always would be.

It was clear they had made their choice long ago.

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><p><em>"You." he murmured to her, planting kisses on her long, swan-like neck. She pressed against his chest, giggling and squeezing her hands against his broad shoulders. Her sharp knife fingernails dug deeply past the leather he wore, into his skin and seeping a small amount of his blood. Sometimes they flinched at the pain they gave each other, but otherwise they were used to the bruises and blood.<em>

_Nearby flies already quickly started to gather where the former crime boss member laid, covered in slash marks from many weapons from identifiable to the unnamed ones only known for what unberable pain they could bring. Long dead of course, with his lifeless eyes staring up horrified to the ceiling at his sudden death, all while his blood continued to sink deeper into the mattress of his royal sized bed._

_It was rather humorous how in the exact same room two events played out. One was romantic, and the other was horrific crime scene. As the sun nearby began to set, the angle of the luxurious apartment only made things far more interesting. The man's shadow grew larger as the sun grew dimmer, as if it wanted to travel with the sun. Meanwhile, the couples honestly appeared more beautiful than what they were, her mocha brown skin compromising perfectly against his fair cream skin._

_I could only sit back and watch, highly amused by the fact they could honestly be so sensual and content over the fact they just recently murdered someone less than a few moments before. Hell, the body was still there lying on the bloody bed, and they looked just about ready to fall onto it anyways and not even care. Hwoever getting off topic, I wasn't going to lie, their children were going to have the most beautiful skin color._

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><p>Her speed increased as she wallk through the pathway that lead to the dor, and rang the doorbell only once. It was a little hard for her to let go of the button, but obviously she had to or else she'd break it. And she was here with a better purpose than to commit property damage.<p>

_Ding Dong!_ The simple innocent chime rang through the house, followed by the sound of a deep voiced dog barking. The woman took a step back, just in case if the furry friend on the other side turned out to be some unfriendly pitbull. If there was one running around the house even wth small children, she wasn't surprised. Shana was the type of girl who adored scary things; After all, she did sleep with a murderer like her.

"I'm comin'! I'm comin'! Hold up a second!" a woman's voice frantically called. Her voice was heavily city accented, definetely from New York City. The sound of shuffled footsteps approaching the door made the woman standing outside tighten her fists even more, adrenaline rushing through her body. It was now or never for the first strike, there could be no mistake. Then again, why was she doubting herself? After all she was _the Black Mamba._ and the Black Mamba never misses on the first hit.

A minute later after scurrying and the noise of _'Beep'_ to end a phone conversation, the door opened by a woman who was no older than her early thirties with mocha brown skin, hazel eyes, and raven hair. The particular feature about her was her large front bang that occassionally covered her right eye, was the color blood red. Rumors had it each wisp of hair turned permanently blood red through stains of each person she killed.

She was a little distracted at first, eyes facing the floor as she opened the door shaking her head.

"Girl I cannot believe you're here this early-" she, Shana Harley, started to say before looking up and realizing who was at the door. Her sentence stopped dead completely as she looked in the eyes of someone she thought long dead, someone who was _supposed_ to be dead.

A woman of about the same age, maybe a tad older, taller, and slight build to her slender figure. She also had a heart shaped face and light reddish brown hair

The hazel eyes that quickly connected to the fierce bright blue ones glaring at her instantly brought back memories through her mind in the same blood red color as her hair.

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><p><em>She hadn't been alone when taking pleasure out of beating her. She wasn't the only one laughing while the bride screamed in the horrific pain caused by her. Sending another kick directly at her, the heavily pregnant bride went flying backwards, screaming and panting.<em>

_Those helpless bright blue eyes looked directly to the hazel ones above her; Shana, under her ego as the ferocious Feline Cenobite, donned a leather outfit that concealed any sort of cleavage and knee high heeled boots. Standing proud and dominantly over the injured bride, the slightest smirk twitched her._

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><p>"You-" Shana gasped, starting to try and say, but was unable to finish her sentence as a fist went flying at her.<p>

BAM!

She tumbled backwards, but didn't trip and hit the floor quite yet. The other woman jumped right in and attempted to kick once again. Shana defended herself by using her right hand to smack her leg down, only to be distracted as the woman once again punched her in the face.

Shana was sent back a bit, her lip sore and already quickly wet from the blood that quickly came out. It dripped to her chin, to which Shana quickly wiped it off with her sleeve. The red haired woman attempted to throw another punch at her, but this time Shaan grabbed her arm and swung her, sending her flying hard and crashing against the living room wall. If the effort into it had been any harder, the impact of the other woman crashing against the wall would've made a large hole.

Shana tightened her fist and tried to punch the other woman in the face, but she quickly jerked her head to the side and instead caused Shana to punch the whole. The rough impact skinned the hard balls of her fist, but she gritted her teeth and sucked in the pain to still outstretch her leg and make the other woman triped before she could get away and make a weapon out of any the furniture in the room. Quickly dragging her fist out of the wall, she shook off some of the dusty gray debris covering her skinned fist, and tried to choke-kick the other woman in the neck. It seemed as though she succeeded as the other woman heaved a cough, but grabbed both of her arms to push her leg off and punch Shana in the thigh. She flinched but it was hardly anything as the other woman quickly got back on her feet and once again kicked Shana, sending her flying backwards in the air and crashing hard against the glass coffee table.

Shana groaned, her arm shaking from the stinging pain of a piece of glass piercing through her skin. But just as the other woman hopped over the couch to approach her, Shana grabbed the nearby only wooden piece of the glass coffee table, it's leg, and hit the other woman right at her. The other woman cried out, her knees buckling. Steadily on her knees despite the glass pinching against her knees, Shana pushed the other woman back against the couch and grabbed one of the nearby pillows, suffocating her. For a minute, Shana seemed to have the advantage as the other woman could do nothing as the pillows pressed deeper against her face, only able to helplessly wave her arms about as if crying out. But within a minute her arms appeared instead to be searching, and it became clear her target was for Shana's face as she grabbed her hair, nearly yanking it out. Shana screeched, too distracted to hold on to the pillow and was forced off.

The other woman pushed Shana back against the glass covered floor, and accidentally used her fists to break her fall. The glass stabbed right through them despite the thickness of her skin and nearly cutting her veins. Out of the corner of her eye, Shana spotted another wooden leg and grabbed it, slipping it silently behind her back. The other woman was on her knees, crawling towards her and trying to get up at the same time when Shana tried to swing the leg at her face, but missed. The other woman grabbed both of her arms and flipped her over almost in a similar style to two divas wrestling.

Just as Shana had started to get up on her knees once again, the other woman came up from behind her and wrapped her arm around Shana's swan-like neck, strangling her. If she was to yank her arm back, she would snap Shana's neck and the fight would be over. Gasping for air, Shana gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes fiercely.

_'Not today bitch!'_ Shana thought furiously, forcibly falling forward and throwing the woman right off her. Panting for air, Shana quickly saw nearby the chimney tools incluidng the poker and grabbed it, just as the other woman was blinking her eyes and adjusting back to what was going on. Her fierce bright blue eyes widened when she saw what was aimed right in between them, and just as Shana brought the poker down to stab her, the woman jerked her head to the right. So quickly Shana tried to stab her from there, to which the woman did the same head dodging, only moving to the left this time. Frustrated, Shana instead tried a different strategy and smacked the woman from the side as if she were a golf ball.

"Damn, you're head didn't fly off." she grumbled bitterly to herself, once again bringing the poker down to hit the woman. But this time she used both of her hands to block it, and with all of her summoned strength used it to push Shana off right back against the wall. The two women looked to one another, the bright blue ones were staring in a mixture of emotions; Mockery, curiosity, patience, fear, and fury.

All while the hazel ones were dark and emotionless.

Shana suddenly turned and dashed right off to the nearby kitchen before the other woman could even have the chance to blink. Just as the other woman entered the kitchenn, Shana pounced forward similar to a cat attacking- one of her hands once again as they had been as Feline, her fingernails eight inch long nails while the other one was still normal but gripped a butcher knife. The woman widened her eyes in surprise, as Shana sliced her right at the shoulder with her knife-fingernails, cutting past the tawny leather jacket, red shirt, and red to her skin and deeper. Thety were thin cuts, but they still stung painfully.

The other woman made no scream as she placed one hand to the injured shoulder, preventing more blood from oozing out as she jumped backwards to avoid being stabbed by the butcher knife. Shana was excelent at use with knives, and very graceful too. To be honest, if it wasn't you being the target, she was a fascinating thing to watch when at use with a knife. Several swift times she sharply jabbed forward with the knife, barely missing the woman by an inch. On the stove laid a frying pan, sadly not heated though, but still sufficent for the woman to use to defend herself.

It appeared as though they could still engage in a sword fight as their fighting continued towards the door that lead back to the living room. Suddenly the woman was able to knock the butcher knife out of Shana's hand, but the victory was short-lived as Shana scratched the woman right at her cheek with her knife-fingernails and kicked her right into the living room.

The woman grunted, noticing nearby one of the larger glass shards and picked it up in her hand to be used as a knife. Shana ran right into the room again, standing her ground and narrowing her eyes.

"Come on bitch. Come on..." she challenged while breathing heavily at the same time, her knife fingernailspointing threateningly towards the woman. Though confident and smooth as her voice sounded, her head and other hand were shaking with the pressure.

"Come on, I dare you." Shana gritted through her teeth, as her ears perked to the familiar screeching sound.

Both women turned to find that an afternoon school bus had stopped right in front of the "Moore" house, its doors opening up to let out two small children that casually but eagerly skipped off. The looked to one another and grinned, with one racing ahead while the other happily skipped.

"Not here." Shana shook her head, her eyes softening with a desperate pleading look. Her hope of reason shined brightly in her hazel eyes. But the one with bright blue eyes and a cold look remained unconvinced.

_"Please." _she added hoarsely, just barely a whisper. This was enough to convince the other woman, who nodded mutually in agreement. Just as the front door opened the two women spun around to face those at the door, their weapon hands hidden behind their backs and with the other woman forcing a wide smile on her face.

"Mommy we're home!" a little boy called as he walked in first. Following behind him quickly was a small girl of the same height and age. It was obvious they were twins, but not identical. The little boy looked closely to Shana with the same mocha colored skin and hazel eyes. However his hair was more of a dark brown color instead. The little girl had fairier, more coffee colored skin, with wavy raven colored hair and dark brown colored eyes.

"Hi sweetie." Shana grinned, gesturing to both of her children. Her son and daughter's smiles both quickly faded as they noticed the debris everywhere from the shattered glass to the large holes in the walls. It also wasn't hard to notice the dust and blood on their mother and this stranger. Come to think of it, the fact there was a stranger in the room made things even more odd and suspicious to the children.

"How was school? Jamal, did Lenny leave you alone today?" Shana panted, completely starting up a subject fast to distract her children. Her other question obviously gestured to the little boy, who's eyes looked to the floor. He had his hands in his coat pocket and shrugged.

"Jamal." his mother once again spoke, this time a bit warningly and demanding he tell the truth.

"I punched him in the face today an' got in twouble." he mumbled, pouting his lip. As he lifted his head up, he revealed that nearby his right eye was a bruise. Shana gasped and quickly walked over to him, her free hand gingerly tending to it while Jamal's eyes watered with worry of being punished. During this entire time, never once did she reveal her clawed hand nor let it be spotted in front of her twins.

"Jamal honey, you know what I told you about violence. How wrong it is.." Shana gestured to as a reminder while a tear slowly fell down his cheek.

"He was makin' fun of me and Ellie! I had to! I know 'bout how sticks an stones can't hurt me, but his words did! He was mean Mommy, and he deserved it!" Jamal protsted, tightening his fists and trying hard not to cry. He glanced briefly over to the other woman with reddish-brown hair.

_"That little boy has Shana's eyes alright, and not just the color. They way he looks at me, especially that suspicious look right now, makes him appear the freakin' spitting image of her."_

His sister in the meanwhile had been blankly staring, mesmerized by the debris. She had a puzzled look on her face, as if trying to figure out what had happened. In a way, it seemed as though she was starting to fit the pieces together.

"Mommy, what happened to you an' the livin' room?" she softly asked, furrowing her eyebrows together. Shana slowly left Jamal's side and backed away to where she first had been nearby the other woman.

"Well uh, you see baby, that damned dog got loose again. Went on a rampage worse than a tornado." she explained, grumbling and putting up admittedly a good act to sound annoyed.

"Barney punched holes in the wall?" Jamal asked surpirsed, raising his eyebrows. "Cool!" he gasped, looking ready to run over and inspect until Shana protectively held an arm out in front of him to stop him.

"You stay right where you are young man! And you too young lady." Shana said, turning over to her daughter. "Now there's lots of broken glass all over and you can cut yourself. I want you two to go upstairs, wash your hands, and go watch T.V up in my bedroom. Okay?" she commanded softly.

Both children nodded eagerly, but the daughter still continued to look at the stranger woman. She desperately continued to search for a memory in any way that would make her familiar, whether it be personally or from a photograph. Still, nothing clicked and instead there was an awkward staring contest.

"Mommy, who's this?" the daughter asked, referring to the unknown woman.

Shana forced a pleasant smile on her face.

"This." she said, looking over to the woman. "Is an old friend of mine, _Joey Summerskill-"_

_"Yep. That's me. Joanne Leigh Summerskill, but I prefer the nickname Joey myself."_

"- she just decided to stop by and visit. Say hi." she spoke to both of her children. The daughter merely stared, cocking her head to one side with an interest and curiosity. Jamal shuffled his feet and nervously looked to the ground.

"Hello." the daughter chimed with a small smile.

"Hi." Jamal muttered, forcing a small smile.

"Joey, these are my twin children. Jamal and Illeana." Shana introduced to the other woman with her hand outstretched to the two children. Illeana grinned warmly and waved, while Jamal's smile appeared more artificial than his sister's. Then again, he had a bad day today, and a bad feeling about this stranger. Joey didn't have a doubt in her mind about that.

The room went dead silent, with the loudest sounds being everyone's breathing and cars passing by. Shana raised her eyebrows and made a face of 'Go already' for her two children, who snapped their attention back to their mother and did as she had earlier asked. Their footsteps padded against the staircase as the jogged up with their backpacks bouncing lightly on their backs.

"Now, wanna try a less senseless greeting? I'll make coffee." Shana asked finally after not saying anything for a while when her children had left the room. She had her back turned and did not dare look at Joey. Whether or not it was out of guilty or anger, Joey would never know. Shana seemed to be staring down at her clawed hand emotionlessly, also mindlessly skimming her thumb against the sharp bladed ends without once cutting herself.

"Yeah. I could use that." Joey slowly and softly nodded, cautiously following her into the nearby kitchen. Her fists were tight in balls, and her fierce bright blue eyes never once left the sight of Shana's hands; The one that was still gripping the butcher knife had yet to lighten up while the clawed one was frozen stiff.

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><p><strong>XxX<strong>

"Time's hardly touched you Joey. Maybe I should take the Sleeping Beauty route one of these days." Shana said rather smugly as she turned on the coffee pot.

_"Bear in mind kiddies, Shana is completely unpredictable and emotional. One moment she could be dissing about your mother while craving your face with her claws, and then the next minute she could crack a joke on someone's mother and act as though all as well."_

"Oh believe me Shana. My nap time just _knocked_ me right off my feet." Joey gave an artificial cocky grin, throwing her fist across the side of her face as if she almost hit herself. Shana raised her eyebrows, her lips pursing a thin line. She didn't laugh, but instead made a 'Hmph' noise.

"Courtesy of all of us." she remarked to herself, shaking her head. As she did that, her blood red bang fell over her face suddenly, and Shana frowned. Christ that piece of hair was the most annoying thing on the planet! When she had been young, eager, and bloodthirsty she thought the red bang was the spark she needed to make her the best damn thing to fear over. The legend about it's origins had her in stitches when she overheard it at a bar. She wasn't going to lie, when she was younger she was extremely arrogant.

Nowadays all it did was get in her face and to her make every outfit but black or red to wear appear awkward.

"I knew you were coming Joey." Shana whispered softly, drumming her fingers against the table.

"Sure you did. I bet you that _he_ told the two of you everything, reccomended you to specifically read the papers and find out what made headlines that'd spark your interest." Joey leaned intently, winking.

Shana's expression appeared horrified, as she raised her eyebrows in a startled way and backed into the counter top even more.

"Guess it's too late for an apology?" she murmured dryly.

"You guessed right." Joey responded, without any emotion or twinge of some humorous grin.

"Look bitch, let's just get something straight. You better _not_ have come here with the purpose to start some shit with my babies. Cos if you did so help me-" the sassy mother did not dare finish her sentence. She grit her teeth so hard she wondered if she had cracked them.

"Relax Shana. I'm not gonna murder you and your husband in front of your children." Joey assured with sincere eyes of honesty. When it came to honesty, the only way to tell if Joey was telling the truth was through her eyes. Everyone back in the day had agreed, Joey had the most expressive and emotional eyes.

"I suppose I could call that good news. If I hadn't heard what happened in the papers, I'd've thought you were playing the racist game. Hmph. Picking off the black girl first." Shana humored to herself, chuckling lowly.

"It's compassion, sympathy, and mercy I lack nowadays. I merely go as I chose by convenience, not by the color of my enemy's skin." the ex-reporter stated as a matter of factly.

_"Ah now that sounds like some sort of thing you'd find out of the comics. The average faily reporter turns out to be an assasin- well- that works for the bad guys, kinda. Never said that the reporter has to play the role of a hero to make interesting stories. Me? You'll soon see me as the anti-hero type, not a villian nor hero."_

The atmosphere turned dry and tense once again with the silence. It would be Shana who would break the ice thought.

"The Yakuza Queen had a mouth big enough to fit an entire caliber in her mouth, not just a bullet." she finally said, narrowing her eyes and landing right onto Joey's level of twisted humor.

"Katana style sweetie, this isn't going to be done quick and clean like the old days." the ex-reporter said, running a hand through her mattered light red brown hair. Normally her hair was lucious and full of volume, but not only had she walked away from a fight a few minutes ago, she looked like she had just washed off an entire war from a shower. If Shana squinted her eyes and paid good enuogh attention, she would still be able to notice a few of the still healing cuts all over Joey's face and neck.

"Look, if this were the good old days there wouldn't be this intermediate moment happening right now!" Shana said, starting to tighten her fists when she stopped. After all, she still had somehow managed to 'summon' her clawed one, which could easily poke through her arm and cut her. To find cuts on her arm, wrists, and occassionally veins from her clawed hands was uncommon back in the old days.

"You certainly are bringing back your attitude from the old days." Joey remarked, leaning back on her chair relaxedly and nodding.

"An' you seemed to have picked up on X- _Snake Charmer's_ humor. Except the difference here is you ain't charming me." Shana frowned, noting the coffee pot was finally done. To her, right now the timing was awkward and tense. Her heart hammered in fear at the idea of Illeana and Jamal suddenly coming downstairs and overhearing, or worse, watching their mother suddenly jump to a fight to the death against this 'old friend'.

"Oooh. Tough crowd." Joey remarked, pretending to sound hurt. instead deep down she was a little surprised; Shana used to be the one that was easiest to humor. Even with the worst jokes she would at least bounce them back to make them sound funny. But her cold attitude proved things were about as serious as the other already 'tended to' business Joey had earlier. Well then, so be it.

"Hm. Tough luck." Shana purred, suddenly glancing down at her clawed hand.

"Last time I checked, once you signed on to the whole pain and pleasure deal, there's no refunds. How come you look so...human?" Joey curiously asked. This next kill case was certainly filled with strange, new surprises.

"Let's just say I got hooked up with some help from an old friend in fact. Y'know, that good old tech expert..." Shana trailed, smirking a bit in satisfactory at Joey's surprised expression. Joey widened her eyes and mouthed a name to herself. Though it wasn't audible, Shana knew exactly who Joey knew it was.

"Lighten up, Doc helped to benefit for us. It has nothing to do with the whole-" Shana's eyes shifted around, checking just in case to see the twins had not somehow come downstairs to overhear. Finally, she continued_. "You-Know-What incident."_

"Alright, fine. But me being here does have something to do with that. And you know damn straight." Joey said, unable to hold back a bit of her temper. Her legs pushed with all their might to hold down the adrenaline for later instead of jumping up on the kitchen table. After all, they were supposed to be acting like senseful and mutual enemies.

Then again, Joey didn't make any promises. And for the record, mentioning about Doc, the only one who even now was supposedly her true friend all along, was crossing the line. It hurt her even more to know that the one who dared cross the line was another once supposed true friend too.

"Easy girl. Easy." Shana murmured, setting the hot cup of coffee on the table in front of Joey. When Joey couldn't help but curiously look, Shana's clawed hand was gone. Instead there were two normal mocha colored hands with sharp, well cared for nails with a clear coating.

"So, who's the Baby Daddy to Luke and Leia upstairs?" Joey amusedly remarked. Shana slammed her coffee cup down and crossed her arms, looking at Joey with the most utterly annoyed expression ever.

"Ya know damn well Jimmy's the father. Who else? ! After all, we was called _The Lovers_, were we not?" she grinned mischieviously.

"Yeah but that whole love story isn't exactly similar to _Titanic_ there 'Rose Moore'." Joey made a half smirk and shrugged. She took a sip of her coffee, despite the bitter taste of it being pure black. It was fine to Joey. The stronger the better, especially after the recent, practically sleepless nights before.

Shana sighed, placing down her mug. She was too uneasy to drink right now, not with so many things running through her head all at once.

"Joey, look. I get your angry, and I get there isn't a damn thing I can do about it. I mean, like to stop you from pursuing your whole revenge plan. At least lemme explain Jimmy an' I-"

"Just you two?" Joey laughed, nearly choking on her coffee and raising her eyebrows. She shook her head and couldn't help but chuckle darkly.

"Honey, if you even think finishing the sentence of you two know we'll all be on even grounds if I kill you two, then you're dead wrong. No pun intended. You took a part in taking everything away from me. Getting even with you would be not only killing you but going upstairs and grabbing your precious twins by their hair, dragging them downstairs and force them to look at their dead mother's body. Kill them, and then calmly wait for Jimmy to come home, and let his horrified face be the last he ever makes before I kill him too. _That_ is being Even Steven."

Meanwhile, Shana must have been cleaning the blood off of her with a wash cloth, because as soon as Joey finished her sentence she threw it right down on the floor. Without even looking at Joey, she stormed forward to the refridgerator and yanked a picture viciously off.

"Look Joey, I know we can walk down memory lane even at it's rockiest for everything done. If this were the old days, like I said, there'd be no intermediate time like now. But this isn't the old days, this is now. I wish I hadn't fucked you up, but I did. Am I proud? No. But I live up to it. I also live up happily the fact I am a mother to two children!" she hissed, nearly shoving the photo to Joey's face.

Joey slowly took the picture out of Shana's hands and briefly looked at it; It was Ileana and Jamal at around the age of a few months. They were in their crib, and Jamal barely had any signs of hair while Illeana had a headful. She was wide awake and staring up mesmerized with her dark brown eyes, while her brother was completely asleep.

"I'm not going to lie, that's a cute picture, Shana. But just because I don't want to extract my revenge in the eyes of your son and daughter doesn't mean you can go around parading them and expect me to spit out sympathy." she warned.

"I didn't say that was my intentions." Shana mildly remarked, raising her hands up to defend herself.

"By the way, how old are they?" Joey suddenly asked. She noticed a wave of guilt fall on Shana's face, and she turned away silently. Finally after patiently waiting a minute or so, Joey bravely took a step forward.

"Shana, if they're illegal I'm not going to report them. I just want to know their ages." she slowly explained, all while Shana held her hands tightly together. She mouthed something a few times, but the tone was so low Joey could hardly hear it. Finally, Shana groaned and nearly yelled it out loud.

"FOUR! They're...they're four. I- I was unknowingly two and a half months pregnant with them during the Massacre."

Joey took a step back once again only this time with a suspicious look on her face. "Two and a half months? You didn't know for _that_ long?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow sky high.

"When you're an assassin fearing for your life and what power to lose or gain, the only thing currently left on mind with, erm, 'bleeding' is that you don't at a place that can kill you." the diva shrugged casually.

"Did I miss out on the fun yet kiddies?" a voice drawed out from nearby. Shana looked over with an exasperated look of great relief. Joey slowly turned around, but already knew exactly that it was Jimmy.

Shana's husband was tall, with long dark brown hair and eyebrows. His facial expressions tended to appear very calm and collective, even when at the worst situations. Any one that was assigned to become his victim were extremely paranoid and unprepared for when he would attack because unlike the others, he never had any sort of war face. Just a poker face. Except for now, now he looked quizzical and a tad mischievious. But when Joey looked into Jimmy's dark brown eyes, she could see a part of him was for the first time ever, seriously frightened.

"Daddy! Daddy!" Illeana cried suddenly. Both parents jumped, as Jimmy turned around and went to grab for his young daughter before she ended up walking right into the glass debris.

"Hey princess!" he exclaimed, grinning breathlessly. She held him close in the embrace as he hoisted her up, and with their faces close by Joey could see father and daughter resemblance perfectly.

"Joey." he acknowledged with a slight nod, only taking his eyes off of Illeana once to stare right at her.

"Jimmy. Long time no see." she responded, flipping her reddish-brown hair back.

"Hmph. I wonder why." Jimmy sarcastically remarked with a smug.

"It's cos you an Mommy probably didn't give her our phone number." Illeana suggested innocently. Her dark brown eyes looked to Joey and suddenly she grew timid and worried. It was a look of guilt as if she had stolen from the cookie jar, which made Joey curious. But remembering her promise to Shana not to allow any interference with the children, she said nothing.

"Now baby, Mommy and Daddy are gonna talk to our old friend. Don't worry, everything's gonna be fine. Okay?" Jimmy murmured to Illeana, kissing her forehead.

"Okay Daddy." she softly smiled, hugging him tightly as her father carried her past the living room and safely to the bottom of the staircase in the other room. The sound of rushing padding footsteps obviously meant that she quickly ran to re-join her twin brother upstairs.

As soon as Jimmy entered the kitchen to join in on the conversation, Shana ran towards him and they passionately embraced. At first it seemed to be nothing but a locked hug, but then it also was locked lips for what felt like several long minutes. Joey flushed a bit, her tense feeling slowly changing to awkward. Finally as the young married couple pulled away, Jimmy looked directly to Shana, his eyes giving the darkest glare Joey had honestly seen from him.

"Illeana had called while I was with some deejaying gig. She said a stranger was in the house, the living room was a wreck, and that she was afraid because she knew they all were related to each other." Jimmy explained in a rough whisper. Whether or not he was explaining this to Shana or trying to make Joey feel bad was unknown.

"Don't even waste yo' breath sweetheart, she don't wanna hear it." Shana said, her hazel eyes flickering from her husband to Joey.

"I take it you have the intentions to come and go as you please to each and every one of us bastards?" Jimmy remarked, raising his eyebrows.

"Long story short, I've got all the time in the world. Why not stay and chat? Can't we be a little human before we take each other's lives?" Joey responded calmly, crossing her arms.

"Yes because she politely greeted me at the door." Shana said, turning to Jimmy and referring to her top lip, which by now was swelling a bit and had a small amount of dried blood on it.

"Well if you're in no rush, why not plan ahead instead?" Jimmy asked.

"A scheduled execution?" said Joey sarcastically. Shana grew annoyed about hearing Joey's confident rant that she was going to win the fight. Just who did this bitch think she is, running around like she was at the top of her game just because of the damned bloodshed in Tokyo? There were two of them in the house right now, and only one of Joey. Even if she could take one of them down, one would be left standing.

"You just hold on a second-" Shana started to say, marching straight forward when suddenly her husband held her back.

"Now wait a second baby." Jimmy interrupted, quickly looking back to Joey. "The kids'll be asleep by 8:30 give or take. We wait until nine just in case and drive off, you meet us up down at the baseball field where Jamal plays Little League. We all dress in black, just for the Hell of old time's sake."

"Sudden night fight and no interruptions. I love the way you think." Shana smirked in agreement. She crossed her arms and the two glanced at one another, nodding and smirking in approval. Joey couldn't help but think of how these two reminded her of the type of two mischievious prankers back at school that were the best of friends and would always take the heat together when in trouble.

"Xipe always said that when you weren't after each other you two worked perfectly in combat." Joey commented, turning her attentin back to her coffee cup. It was half empty and now sour tasting, so she decided not to drink it. However there was something else also on the table nearby the mug, several dining sets. As in, the type you'd find a restaurant where the knife and fork were properly rolled into a napkin.

An idea entered her mind, but she kept her eyes away from the table just so the two wouldn't catch on. Joey hadn't noticed that Jimmy had left Shana's side and casually leaned back against the wall right across from Joey.

_"Ah, so this is the part when they try to corner me, eh?"_

"Bitch, Xipe didn't give a damn for what we could possibly do together unless he feared one of our tosses were off and would hit him. Boy was too fixated over the nutheads of our group!" Shana snorted, referring to Joey's comment earlier before. She was also in a different spot by the sink and now fixing up something.

"What are you doing?" Joey asked, furrowing her eyebrows curiously.

"Fixing Illeana's cereal." came the huffed response from the now impatient Shana. It was obvious she just wanted to get to the bloodshed already. So just in case at a sudden moment when Jimmy's eyes were staring at the floor and Shana had her back turned, Joey quickly reached for the knife on the table from the napkin as quietly as possible.

"You two are so overly protective of your kids, but yet if you knew I was coming, why didn't you try to take them and run? Hm?" Joey questioned, but the tone was taunting.

"Are you actually trying to criticize our parenting?" Jimmy asked, sounding disgusted.

"Well I can't exactly tell you that for certain Jimmy, considering you two were involved in the killing of my own." she responded darkly, her lips forming a tight line. It wasn't quite a frown, but of course it wasn't anything welcoming to look at.

"Look we fucked you up. I know we was wrong then, but that was then and this was now. And now is _not_ the time to discuss about this!" Shana exclaimed.

Joey found it rather odd about how long it was taking for Shana to grab the bag of cereal out of it's box...

"So, do your kids mostly call you two Mommy and Daddy or _Feline and CD_?" the ex-reporter remarked sharply, nearly laughing. The couple snapped their heads up, both narrowing their eyes furiously and resisting the urge to snap back. But Shana still snorted and laughed, turning over with her hand still in the cereal box in such an odd way of holding it.

"Bitch." Shana started to say, rather relaxedly and closing her eyes.

BAM!

At that sudden moment, Joey ducked, just seconds away from nearly taking a bullet straight to the brain. Shana hid a gun in the cereal box!

_"Well at least she wasn't lying when she said she knew I was coming."_

It appeared Joey was right that the two had been attempting to corner her. Jimmy suddenly revealed to have a knife in his hand that he must've sneaked past and threw it right towards Joey's side where her heart would be. She jolted suddenly, with her eyes widening in surpirse and her body shaking a bit. Jimmy grinned in a cocky manner over his successful shot, while Shana placed the cereal box down and believing it was safe to let her guard down.

She was wrong.

In reality, Joey had caught the knife in a manner of seconds before it could even touch her skin. She turned toward them with her surprised look changing to as if she was unimpressed. Jimmy widened his eyes in surpirse, not having expected her to be so agile and aware even after all this time.

Frozen by his own surpirse, Jimmy hadn't had the time to react quickly enough as Joey threw the knife right back at him towards his chest, He fell right back against the wall before hitting the floor, dead as if it were that simply and quick.

"NO!" Shana screamed. All at once she was heartbroken, devastated, and pissed off. Her husband, the love of her life, was dead. What better vengeance was there than sweet, brutal revenge?

She gritted her teeth and had one of her arms reach back for the cereal knife. Never once in those quick seconds did she take her eyes off of Joey's. But she hadn't been looking down below where Joey grabbed the knife she had hidden in her sleeve, and threw directly to Shana's heart.

She had the time to gasp and choke on a scream, her stab being a bit more powerful to show blood quickly staining her shirt. Even as she slowly fell to the floor dying, she seemed to be shaking with widened hazel eyes. And then her head bobbed back against the floor with her eyes dully closing.

Joey stood above the fallen two. The thought she had now killed two of her once supposted best friends from four years ago hadn't quite hit her. Unlike the others, they really were people that meant a lot to her. Maybe deep down all along the friendship was true, but greed seduced the two to betray her. Whatever the case was, the remorse and mourning was bitter and slow coming. Besides-

"Mommy! Daddy!"

She froze, startled by the sudden high pitched cry of a child in despair. Her heart hammered heavily against her chest and her mind screamed of guilt. She swallowed hard, knowing one or even both of the twins were right behind her. Were they terrified? Crying already? Joey at that moment didn't even care if they ran to the phone and called 911. The immense guilt started to enter her conscience, but she knew she had to shake it away. There were still the others to get to, and after coming so far she couldn't stop now.

She turned around and saw Illeana and Jamal staring. Illeana's large brown eyes were filled with thick tears that rolled down her cheeks, her lip quivering and her breathing hard. Joey knew she was trying to be strong like her parents and not cry, but it was obvious that was slowly becoming unsucessful. Jamal's little fists tightened, and he swallowed hard after finally appearing frozen for the longest time. Joey only briefly looked into his hazel eyes, Shana's eyes, and saw the darkest glare that was enough to frighten demons away for his undescribable fury. Who could blame him? A stranger his parents claimed to be an 'old friend' turned out to be a lie, and now before his very four year old eyes she had killed them.

"I never meant for you to see. And for that I'm sorry." Joey said in a low, slow, and soft tone. She turned around, yanking the knife out of Shana's chest and wiping the blood off of it. Her strokes became harder and more bitter as her lips pressed together in a thin line. She was holding her tongue from saying too much.

"But you have my word, your parents had it coming."

Neither child responded. Illeana only continued to stare at her parents' lifeless bodies. The sweet Daddy's Girl looked ready to release waterfalls from her horrified eyes.. But Jamal...oh Jamal, Joey didn't even dare come anywhere near him. Even though it was she with the weapon, she could never bring herself to hurt him. But he seemed to have no trouble snatching the knife away from her suddenly and killing her. But she did take a step forward and kneel before them.

"I'll tell you what." she softly started to say, her fierce bright blue eyes caught in a staring contest with heartbroken dark brown ones and furious hazel ones. "When you two grow up, if you still feel raw about it...I'll be waiting."

And she left without another word, leaving the twins to cry.

_"The hardest time to be heartless is to children. Sweet, innocent, children. My intentions were not to destroy an entire family or leave two beautiful children as orphans. It's far from there, something personal. Once you get to know, you'll understand."_

_"In fact, we don't we just go back a bit and sort things out..."_

* * *

><p><strong>XxX<strong>

_**It's been a long time comin  
>And the tables' turned around<br>'Cause one of us is goin'  
>One of us is goin' down<strong>_

_**I'm not runnin'  
>It's a little different now<br>Cause one of us is goin'  
>ONE OF US IS GOING DOWN!<strong>_

_**-"You're Going Down"  
>Sick Puppies<strong>_

_**WOW! Oh my God what a long chapter. And with many more to come my friends. I hope you enjoyed! Oh and yes, Shana Harley is my OC (as well as Illeana and Jamal) as many of my faithful readers/friends already know. ;)**_

_**In the actual film, I always felt bad for Nikkia to see her mother Vernita get murdered like that. I mean, as far as she knows, her mom was just brutally murdered before her very four year old eyes. What if they do make a Kill Bill 3 about her going after Beatrix and BB? It'd just be so awful cause that revenge is misunderstood and one-sided. I dunno, poor kid. :P**_

_**BTW, just because these two were called the Lovers like the chapter doesn't mean they were exactly a Disney romance LOL. Actually, it's far from what you expect, but you'll have to wait till part 2 to learn about that.**_

_**Eh, Imma shut up now. Read and review please! :)**_


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